It started as Johnson & Johnson’s darkest hour, and Lawrence Foster was right in the middle of it. In the fall of 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died after swallowing capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol laced with cyanide, setting off a wave of panic over the nation’s most popular painkiller. Foster, who was the company’s vice president of public relations, helped steer J&J’s swift and candid response to the crisis, now considered the benchmark in corporate crisis management.